But several elected officials denounced the court's ruling as absurd, saying that preventing politicians from holding party office was like barring doctors from practicing medicine.

Mr. Pataki's bill would bar doctors whose licenses had been suspended or revoked for incompetence or serious misconduct from practicing medicine while they appeal their punishment.

For months now, officials have barred doctors from the building and forced them to practice in a tent field hospital, even though the doctors say the hospital is ready for use.

In 1989, the Federal Government barred doctors from owning stakes in clinical laboratories that saw Medicare or Medicaid patients.

The Italian Medical Association last weekend leapt into the fray with its own rules, barring doctors from using artificial fertilization treatment on women over 50, single women and lesbians.

The Federal law that bars doctors from prescribing marijuana is the Controlled Substances Act, passed in 1970.

Another would have barred infected doctors from doing "invasive procedures" like surgery.

The judge said the state may bar doctors from helping suicides of children, mental incompetents or others who cannot show medical evidence of unbearable illness.

The family asked the doctors to issue a do-not-resuscitate order, which bars doctors from reviving a patient whose heart or brain has stopped functioning, a hospital official said.